blackpoll

One bird — the blackpoll warbler — hopscotches from Alaska to Long Island, and there pauses to bulk up.

American birds fascinated me: the robin that hunted for earthworms by listening for their tunneling; the blackpoll warbler and its mammoth migration.

On a warm June morning in 2016, a male blackpoll warbler was busy defending a breeding territory near Whitehorse, Yukon.

For blackpoll warblers, migration is a very long haul.

For example, blackpoll warblers weighing just a half ounce hopscotch each spring from as far south as Peru to the upper reaches of Canada.